Help: Cheap notebooks

[EFI Support]

I saw somewhere that Dell was offering notebooks for $199, but it was for 1 day only.

We have a road trip coming up next year and were going to buy the kids a DVD player for the car, but if we can pick up a notebook at that sort of price, I'd rather do that.

Anyone know of any good deals? Given we are in Australia, my preference would be to buy online and ship to some friends in LA where Ross could pick it up when he heads over for SEMA at the end of next month. Ross probably only has 1/2 day free to shop this year, and I don't like my chances of anything more than a cheap souvineer for the 3 kids!

Cheers
Cindy

 

[Big Block 88]

Acer usually runs good deals on there lap tops, they are an of brand of Dell (or they were at one time)

 

[maine04max]

tigerdirect.com has a deal on acer's rite now for $239 . my brothers a computer junkie and has bought a few things with good results from them .

 

[Brian1]

I myself have used Acer and pretty good luck. Currently HP unit. The one you may have been looking at may not have a DVD drive in them for that price. Most netbooks I seen don't have a dvd drive in them. Some offer external drive with them which is fine but to me the processors lack good dvd playback. The Acer I used dropped many frames. Just mostly use it as a DMZ firewall router.

Brian

 

[Vrabel]

verizon has them for 199 w 1yr contract. go to staples, theres some good deals right now

 

[LBZrcks]

tigerdirect.com has a deal on acer's rite now for $239 . my brothers a computer junkie and has bought a few things with good results from them .

X2 on what Craig said, tigerdirect.com has some real good deals sometimes

 

[Cougar281]

Look at the netbooks. They're not super fast, but as long as you only want to play with EFILive, Internet and/or word processing (sorry, no intense games), they'd probably be perfect. Most can be had for $300 or less, I believe.

 

[LBZrcks]

Look at the netbooks. They're not super fast, but as long as you only want to play with EFILive, Internet and/or word processing (sorry, no intense games), they'd probably be perfect. Most can be had for $300 or less, I believe.

One thing to remember is to make sure they have a dvd drive, most don't

 

[Darius6t9]

If I remember correctly, Netbooks don't have an optical drive. If it does then it's a notebook or laptop. If it does and it's labeled as a netbook. then it was labeled wrong. There is no need for an optical drive if it is intended to be used on the net only. Hence the name, NETBOOK. For someone that is not going to play games and just use it to surf the web or even better, play with EFILive. then a netbook would be perfect. And yes. I'm working on my bachelor's in Computer Science Network Technology and Network Security. But I have been playing with computers since the late 80's. Go figure after being a Correctional Officer for almost 12 years.

 

[Poltergeist]

The Dell netbooks have an optional external optical drive for loading software etc. The Dells also have an option of getting static hard drives. Static hard drive = 16 or 32 gig flash hard drives. Great way to save battery and have very fast on/off of the netbook.

 

[Darius6t9]

The Dell netbooks have an optional external optical drive for loading software etc. The Dells also have an option of getting static hard drives. Static hard drive = 16 or 32 gig flash hard drives. Great way to save battery and have very fast on/off of the netbook.

Yeah. Those solid state drives are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wish I could get one for my computer and laptop.

 

[Poltergeist]

Since they are just coming out I'm giving it about 2 years and then you'll be able to get them just as easy as a regular drive. And in just as big of a capacity. That's going to be the next speed boost in computers. I can hardly wait to get one.

 

[EFI Support]

Thanks everyone. We'll keep an eye out for a deal on the Dell. Our kids are 5 and 7 and the Dell appeal because it won't be toast if they drop it. The lack of DVD drive doesn't bother us - I think Ross is thinking USB stick or something at this stage.

We were planning on a portable DVD player for them for christmas, but the netbooks are too cheap not to consider them. It will only be used for playing DVD's and basic word processing so it doesn't need to be over the top - may load EFILive just for fun A netbook means I no longer have to share my PC with the girls and we no longer need to let them use Ross's laptop

Cheers
Cindy